Elder Marvin J. Ashton served in the Mormon church (officially known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. His service was much loved, as his soul was most gentle and his comments inspired. His teachings blessed the lives of many.
During one of his discourses, he shared some very profound thoughts regarding financial preparedness. I’d like to share those with you. And you can visit this link to read Elder Ashton’s full discourse.
These are his twelve points:
1. Pay an honest tithing.
2. Learn to manage money before it manages you.
3. Learn self-discipline and self-restraint in money matters.
4. Use a budget.
5. Teach family members early the importance of working and earning.
6. Teach children to make money decisions in keeping with their capacities to comprehend.
7. Teach each family member to contribute to the total family welfare.
8. Make education a continuing process.
9. Work toward home ownership.
10. Appropriately involve yourself in an insurance program.
11. Understand the influence of external forces on family finances and investments.
12. Appropriately involve yourself in a food storage and emergency preparedness program.
Each of these steps can do much to help a family become financially solvent. And in today’s world, that is really something. With the housing implosion, with shaky economies, etc., a family really needs to have a solid financial bedrock to be able to survive.
Tithing is one of the first steps Elder Ashton mentioned. Tithing has been a “principle of gratitude” in existence since Old Testament times. In fact, in Malachi 3 we read:
“Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me.”
What a frightening statement, to hear the Lord accuse you of robbery? Wow. The Lord explains, though.
“But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings” (Malachi 3:8)
Ahhh. So when we do not pay tithing to the Lord, He views it as robbery. Later in that same chapter, He proclaims the mighty blessings that attend full tithe payers:
“Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, THAT THERE SHALL NOT BE ROOM ENOUGH TO RECEIVE IT.
“And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the Lord of hosts” (Malachi 3:10-11)
Wow. These are some blessings! Many will quote the prospered part of the blessings, but my favorite part is how the Lord rebukes the devourer for us. All things become blessed when we manifest the law of tithing in our lives. But we also need to make sure we pay tithing to the properly authorized sources. To learn more about this, feel free to visit the Mormon.org website.
I suggest that you take one of these twelve steps and work on one each month during the year 2008. Allow the Lord to bless you by following His financial plan laid out by His servants. The blessings will be many and mighty!
